Fatum - Arc One of the Trinity of Destruction
by Duranda1
Summary: Team RWBY graduated from Beacon several months ago. The White Fang still terrorise Vale, and Cinder Fall is nowhere to be found. Life still has many difficult challenges left for the four brave Huntresses. Rated T for dark themes and language; no gore or smut. Co-written with Yoramex.
1. Reflection amongst a Sea of Stars

**Chapter 1: Reflection Amongst A Sea Of Stars**

* * *

"_It began of nothing and in nothing it ends_."

Gaius Cornelius Gallus

* * *

Lake Azure looks so beautiful in the evening twilight; the way the remnants of sunlight twinkle off the water like shining stars in the sky makes me feel oddly existential; these imaginary stars will eventually, just like us, fade into obscurity. As if particles of space dust intermingling, the heavenly lights of the sky that are a mere figment of my imagination dance on top of the darkening surface of the deep pool of water that flows through Vale.

_That's definitely _not_ something I would have said in my first year at Beacon._ _I blame the Ice Queen for my sesquipedalian loquaciousness._ Yes, she did teach me that term, and I've used it ever since.

Distracting me from my literal spacing out, Blake appears beside me in an elegant outfit of slightly dark grey, fairly form-fitting trousers, and a plain white t-shirt underneath an unzipped hoodie in a shade that matches the water. She claims the change from her previous monochrome colour scheme (if it can be called that) into a less contrasting and more muted one was due to some garbage about "an epiphany about the world's morality", which disappointed me immensely when I heard about it - cliché though it is, she really does look good in black.

"What brings Yang Xiao Long the Great Punslinger of all people out here? You're not really a stargazing type." she asks, deciding to stare out across the by now colourless water.

"Just watching the water flow out to sea. It helps me relax." I respond somewhat honestly. Although I feel a deep peace from the soothing motion of the inky lagoon, it wasn't the reason I came out here

The cat Faunus smiles at me, and turns back to watching the water. She's changed a hell of a lot from the insular, introverted girl reading by candlelight I met on our first day at Beacon. It was toward the end of her second year at Beacon that she finally became truly comfortable at Beacon, and with Team CFVY having finally given Team CRDL their comeuppance for their blatant racism towards Velvet, she decided to bin her bow, and be proud of being a Faunus. Of course, in public she would be heavily guarded by Team RWBY, who were not afraid to make examples of anyone being so horribly racist towards her. Usually, my little sister simply unfolding Crescent Rose and pointing the diamond tipped, serrated (and fairly deadly looking) edge to the offending citizen got them to shut up incredibly quickly. That didn't stop the glares she'd receive walking down the streets of Vale, but it's better she gets those looks which she can ignore (and often does) than people hurling rocks and insults her way.

By now, all traces of sunlight have disappeared, leaving only the streetlights as illumination for those who don't have night vision. I spare a moment to see how my partner is, but find myself strangely distracted. In her three-tone casual outfit, she looks remarkably elegant and sophisticated - her black and white torso has the clothes arranged so neither colour is overpowering the other. Somehow, the warm and comforting glow of the streetlights' bulbs gives my partner an iridescence that only seems to add to the sense of mystery that she embodies.

_Wait, why am I seeing her in this way?_

I quickly turn back to the lake, and the jagged skyline behind it, knowing all too well the Faunus could clearly make out my rapidly heating up cheeks in the darkness.

_I'm sure it was probably nothing; I mean, it's not like I swing that way, right? It _would _be a good proposal/makeout spot though._

Shaking my head to get rid of these errant and inappropriate thoughts and hoping Blake saw nothing, I decide to reflect on my other team-mates.

I'm genuinely proud of my little sister and her accomplishments; she has grown into an adept team leader who can rapidly change strategy to account for any circumstance and any battle formation. Even Ozpin remarked how good she'd gotten as a team leader - he made a very good call at moving her from Signal to Beacon two years earlier than usual. In our first year, second semester, we had a food fight which showed that we were all fairly competent at fighting by ourselves, but needed to be more cohesive as a group - the fight started off as just me with no-one else to support me. In our last year, we had another skirmish (with Ozpin's blessing, along with a promise to clean the cafeteria afterwards), in which we completely dominated Team JNPR due to the excellent tactician that I call my sister.

In addition to her prodigious leadership skills, she has another trick up her sleeve else that is truly heart-warming: Ruby is a combat medic - she can deftly juggle a fight with a horde of Grimm and healing her team-mates as well as any other subordinates she may have thanks to her Speed semblance. She wanted to be "just like the heroes in the books" to use her own words, so the already caring girl became even more selfless, resulting in her devoting her spare time learning Dust based first aid and thus becoming the combat medic she is today. It's amazing how quickly she can get you back on your feet and fighting after a gunshot or two pierces your Aura.

The Ice Queen has defrosted quite a lot, actually. She doesn't scold us nearly as much as she used to, and she contributes a lot to our team, in terms of supplies. That's the good news. The bad news is that her father did not in any way approve of her being on a team with a Faunus, so Weiss willingly gave up her inheritance and most of her stake in the SDC to cut him out of her life, which was incredibly brave of her. This has very much limited our resources in terms of tracking Dust stolen by the White Fang.

_The White Fang._ That name always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I mean, sure, Roman Torchwick's spending the rest of his years in a high security prison somewhere near Atlas, and yeah, Blake gave Adam his just dessert (I didn't see what happened exactly, but Blake arrived at Beacon, drenched in blood that most definitely was _not_ her own, with one of the most terrifying smiles I've ever seen), but every time we neutralize a White Fang leader, a new one pops up to take their place within a few minutes. It's _crazy._

As for me? About halfway through my third year at Beacon, the father of me and Ruby, Taiyang, was killed by the White Fang. By his corpse was a letter addressed directly to me, which stated the following: "You're next."

Up to that point, I'd put on a strong face for Ruby and later my team-mates, promising them that whenever she had a problem, they could always come to me; yet there I was, standing with a very real proof that I wouldn't be able to keep my promise.

_I completely broke._

I spent weeks locked inside the Team RWBY dorm room, instinctively firing my shot gauntlets at _anything_ that moved nearby. On multiple occasions, that "anything" was my teammates, or members of Team JNPR. I once fired at Ozpin, and nearly got discharged from Beacon as a result of being a nervous wreck. Eventually, after receiving both barrels from Weiss multiple times, Ruby played a very risky gambit. She said that if I didn't at least try to recover she'd resign her position as leader of Team RWBY and leave Beacon; it successfully kicked my big sister instincts online, and I made a modest effort to get back up to speed. It didn't work out though, as I'd break down after losing a sparring match.

The girl who managed to mostly reassemble Yang Xiao Long was the dark haired, amber eyed young woman currently watching the stars contently next to me, watching the stars shimmer in the skies. She revealed to me that when the White Fang went from "the White Fang protest group" to "the White Fang terrorist organisation", she'd been forced to accept the very real possibility of her dying on the job; she coped by having the mantra of if she was going to die tomorrow, she'd at least have enjoyed today - this was where she got her hobby of reading from, as books were fairly cheap and provided a decent few hours of enjoyment.

So I'm probably the least like myself as a first year, taking things fairly seriously, but spending lots of time with my friends and family, with the odd pun or two to show that I'm not completely gone; any illusions of a happy, comfortable life are long gone though, thanks to that haunting note.

Blake gives me a comforting smile one that attempts to reassure me that everything will be OK, that it'll all be fine in the end. She seems to be doing a better job at playing big sister than I am - and I'm the one with roughly 2 decades of experience at it...

"We should probably go inside, lest you get a cold from standing out here too long." I suggest, knowing that Blake's feline Faunus instincts would greatly appreciate being safely curled up by a roaring fire - or my blazing hot Aura - rather than standing outside in the by now near freezing temperatures of the empty blackness that is night in Vale.

"Yeah, I was wondering when you'd say that - I know you're immune to cold thanks to that damn Inner Fire Semblance, but even you get tired eventually." she agrees, shivering slightly from prolonged exposure to the outside elements. As we head back to Beacon, I quickly unzip my leather jacket and hand it over to my partner, who almost greedily accepts the proffered item of clothing without a hint of hesitation, wrapping it around herself tightly. "Do you feel like answering my question properly yet?" she requests, "'Just thinking' is not particularly helpful, you know." Her ears twitch as a sign of annoyance that I didn't give her a proper answer.

"Truthfully, I'm not entirely sure. As you said, I don't really stargaze, but there's something about watching the lights of the sky twinkle in blissful peace that soothes deep inside. It's rare that we get free time in our line of work, so it's best we use it well." I offer as an explanation, not wanting to dredge up memories of my father's death - the real reason I was there - to my partner and best friend. I mean, yeah, she already knows most of it, but it doesn't quite have the same effect to her. She left her family of her own free will - my family left me without giving me a choice in the matter.

Blake gives me a hum of incomplete satisfaction - her heightened Faunus senses probably found a body language cue or something that shows I'm hiding something - but she decides, much to my relief, not to prod further. She gives a long yawn, indicating very heavy fatigue; if she was placed in front of the metaphorical roaring fire, I'd give her a few minutes at most before she was in deep sleep, probably dreaming of tuna fish or characters from one of her books.

Blake's unbound Faunus traits spasm violently, before she doubles over in pain, attempting to cover her ears in any way possible, so I cover her human ears to reduce the extreme sensory overload she receives when she hears something loud - I suppose there's a pretty good reason why there are very few Faunus at Achieve Men concerts. She attempts to convey as much thankfulness as is possible while being curled up in a ball due to extreme agony. Being a Faunus with superhuman senses must be very useful in very quiet situations, but a living nightmare in loud situations.

Then I hear it: the ghostly wail of the city emergency sirens fills the air, choking and suffocating any other sounds that try to challenge its omnipotence. Even I'm having problems trying to counter the horrible screeching those damn things make - Oum only knows how hard it must be for Blake right now. I make a split second decision, and tap several Faunus-specific pressure points that I know off the top of my head (due to several years of taking down White Fang members who made a _very_ poor career choice) and she collapses into unconsciousness. _For what's it's worth, Blake, I'm sorry I had to do that_ \- as I mentally apologise to my poor partner I scoop her up in my arms, and sprint to the Team RWBY house as best I can. She'll be fine - the takedown causes no permanent damage to its victims, although she will be essentially paralysed from the waist down for most of tomorrow while her senses reset themselves - breakfast in bed opportunity, I suppose. She'll be pissed, certainly, but I think she'll understand that it was an act of mercy. I _hope_ she will.

Having reached her bedroom, I put her on the bed, strip her of her clothes (attempting to give her as much privacy as is possible), put her pyjamas on, scribble a note saying "_Sorry I paralysed you Blake, I'll make it up to you -Yang_" and place it on her bedside table. Having done that, I then change from my casual clothing to my combat clothes, attach Ember Celica along with its exoskeleton arm and fist support (about halfway through my 3rd year, I learned how to store my Semblance energy; I kept breaking my fist, so my little sister built me an exoskeleton to support my arm while I punch through walls and other objects), and grab my scroll. Ruby and Weiss have probably already reached the airship, so there's little time to waste, and with Blake out for the count, we need the element of surprise to make up for our even lower than normal numbers.

I'm tired, hungry, can barely see straight and would really appreciate a pint or two right now, but duty calls. I find my motorbike, and within a minute I have donned my helmet and am on my way to Beacon, As I weave between the crowds of other Hunter teams and civilians, I call my little sister to ask where I should meet her; the rather uncharacteristically brusque reply is "In the airship". I'm sure she has a reason for her terse reply, but I can't help but feel something isn't quite right - either my sister's getting impatient (in which case, I'm going to get yelled at by Weiss), or it's something really serious (I mean, the city emergency alarms are going off, but the last time they went off was the Breach of Vale, which was _really easy_), in which case, we're royally screwed for not having Blake around. Putting such worrying thoughts aside (I'm not sure if I prefer dying or getting yelled at by Weiss for being late) I drive toward Beacon's airship port, pushing my engine to its limits to avoid getting an earful from the white-haired Ice Queen.

_I really hope it's something actually challenging for once - it's been awhile since I last had some fun._

* * *

So, Detective Yang is unfortunately dead as of today. I had no plan for it, only rough ideas, and I think it definitely shows. This time, things should be much better organised, as I have a proper plan, and am co-writing with Yoramex.

Here's how things will work: I'll write every odd chapter (1, 3, 5, etc.) and Yora will write every even chapter (2, 4, 6, etc.). Chapters will be uploaded every Friday at 5pm GMT. Hopefully this works out, as we each get a fortnight to write the chapters.

Our writing styles are _very_ different though, so it might be a little jarring at first - we promise we'll try our best to fix that, and will happily rewrite chapters if it makes things flow better.

Shoutouts to:  
\- JillianForDays, writer of Save Me and other truly fantastic stories - for massively helping with the plan for this story; this first chapter alone would only be half its size if not for the exposition that Jillian suggested.  
\- PartFootball, writer of Dark to Light and the Cake Day Shorts - without D2L, we would never have anything of the caliber (possible exception: the Rending Trilogy) to aspire to writing.

We hope we make it worth your while reading our pet project.

**PLEASE FAVOURITE, FOLLOW AND CRITIQUE; WE NEED THE FEEDBACK TO GET BETTER!**


	2. Déjà vu all over again

**Chapter 2: Déjà vu all over again**

* * *

_Out of the frying pan into the fire_

Plato

* * *

It had just started raining, so I could see the many puddles forming on the road. To get from our house to Beacon, I have to drive through Beacon's wonderful gardens on my way to the airships. They have been maintained beautifully throughout the years by Beacon's gardeners.I am hurrying since I don't want to miss them, who knows what would happen to Ruby and Weiss if I'm not there to protect them. My big sister instinct was primarily focussed on Ruby but it had somewhat extended to Weiss and Blake as well. I can't imagine my life without them now. My speed is already considerably fast but I have to keep accelerating, the environment is now passing by at an alarming rate. I am getting increasingly closer but I still wasn't going fast enough. Finally, I can see the many Bullheads standing on the landing platform in the distance; I'm close enough to see that there was tons of people but not close enough to discern anyone. A few minutes later, I'm relieved to find out that I had just barely made it on time.

Vale's distress sirens and Beacon in turmoil were pretty much synonymous. because all hunters and huntresses, both teachers and students, are loaded into Bullheads and brought to the area with the troubles. Nobody ever knows what is going on or what part of Vale they are even taking us to. All that we know, is that we have to prepare for a fight because there is rarely not a fight when Vale's distress sirens were activated. Everyone looks really nervous, and I can't really blame them, I am quite nervous myself. Every yard we progressed, we just get even nervous than we already were. Now, my little sis Ruby might look ok, but I figured deep down, she really wasn't.

_Maybe I should really try to cheer her up a little._

"Hey Ruby, how are you holding up?" I ask her gently. I don't know if I should expect an answer but if it takes too long, I might go crazy; I know I'm not the most patient of people.

"I could be better but all things considered, I feel pretty good." She said.

_Ok, is she lying now or isn't she? I always think I can see through her disguise but it really happens less often than I really cared to admit. I think I better ask her again._

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about anything, sis?"

"Yes Yang, I'm fine, you don't need to worry about anything." Suddenly, I see her eyes twitching.

Now I could see she was obviously lying. She sometimes has a tell and it's always really obvious to me. It's weird that she doesn't want to tell me about it, she usually almost everything but because of this, I decided to not really go through on it. If she doesn't want to tell me, there's no real way for me to force her to do it, which has always annoyed me quite a bit.

Somewhere in the corners of my eyes, I can see the iceprincess, fretting like she has never done before. She likes to be in control but obviously, this doesn't always work; and this was one of the moments where she wasn't. She doesn't really know where she is going so she can't prepare properly. A good preparation has always been of vital importance to her and she feels very vulnerable without one. I better not talk to her since she can be a bit bitchy on these moments and I really don't feel like dealing with that now.

Of course Blake wasn't there but my thoughts still went out to her. I really didn't want to paralyze her but I don't regret doing it, since I really don't want her to get hurt while fighting. I wonder how she's doing and I really hope she will understand why I did it . I wish I could explain her how I really feel when I'm around her.

Maybe I would be able to one day but now is not the right time, because I can feel that the Bullhead is descending, we must be approaching our destination. When I look around, I see faces that are even more nervous and worried than they were before I last looked, which was rather unsettling to me. Usually I can convince myself that everything will be alright but this time, I was having a really hard time doing that.

Ruby interrupted my train of thought. "Yang… where is Blake exactly? Me and Weiss were expecting her to arrive with you, when she didn't, I assumed she sneaked on board, using her Faunus stealth, but I don't really see her anywhere." she states curiously. I have been fearing that they would ask that question for a little while now; so eventually they did, I suppose, but… I was proud on my little sis for noticing that Blake was missing, a good indication of her improved leadership skills. Now... I can either lie to them, or tell them the truth, but I personally see more good in the latter, there's not much point in keeping the truth from them since they will hear about it at some point when they talk to Blake.

"Ehm… I… I may have knocked her unconscious; before I went to the airship, I put her on her bed."

Apparently, Ruby has come to the conclusion that this interrogation of sorts would go a lot smoother if she would keep Weiss from eavesdropping, keeping her as far from the conversation as possible. She probably thinks I would feel a lot more comfortable, but in reality, it doesn't make all that much difference to me. Yet, she's still sorta pushing Weiss out of the conversation and continues alone. "But Yang… why did you do that? We can really use Blake over there." she asks at last.

I sigh, this question is not at all comfortable to me but I suspect Ruby to get really suspicious if I decided to not answer this question; I'd rather answer it than having to face that suspicion. "Look… the thing is. I did it because the sirens were blaring right next to us and I could see her stressing about it; I couldn't take it anymore. You don't have to worry by the way, she will sustain no permanent injury from it. The only effect that she will encounter, is the unconsciousness she's going through now; it can also be accompanied by a slight dizziness afterwards but that usually disappears rather quickly. I… I'm very sorry for doing this, I know I acted against the interests of the team."

I have to look away from Ruby's sad face, it has always been my soft spot concerning my little sister. "Yang… we get why you did what you did, but you also have to understand we can't just ignore it either. You can't just force Blake to not do something she really wants to do, even though you don't like her decision. You have to learn to let Blake live her own life.

""It's…you're right, sis. What I did was stupid and I will try to improve this behaviour."

"Yang, please don't make me pull ranks again please, I really don't like it." Her discomfort hit me harder than I expected, although I already knew she wouldn't like this.

A couple of minutes later, I feel the Bullhead stopping, I can see the doors opening and I go over my landing strategy one last time. That's for the best, since one of the crew members signals that the Bullhead can't land properly and that we have to jump some landing is one of my specialties, it's not much of a problem to me, but that's not something that can be said about everyone. Some of them already had to sacrifice some of their Aura to fix some of the damage they sustained; aura that could be used later on, in fights. Even the tiniest amounts of aura can make the difference between life and death; but since some students were first years, they don't know; they simply don't have enough experience yet.

I can remember the first time breach, the first time I heard Vale's sirens. The circumstances were slightly different then. Instead of a Bullhead for instance, we were right in the middle of the problem, a train which let its cars explode, made holes for Grimm to come through, and finally made an opening in the centre of Vale for the Grimm to cause a lot of death and destruction. Luckily, the problem was solved rather quickly, but, I still want this one to be worse than the last one and that seems to be the case. More buildings have been destroyed than last time and there are also a lot more corpses scattered around. The corpses give me mixed feelings: on one hand, I was glad because this was a sign that it's going to be a harder battle; on the other hand, I feel sorry for the deceased people and my thoughts go out to their families. I look around to assess the situation and see that there are already fights between Grimm and hunters in training. The fact that general Ironwood and his soldiers are back in Atlas now, is going to make things even harder. Lets just hope it doesn't get **too **hard now.

I go to the nearest skirmish to assist the first years a bit, they certainly need it the most. The things attacking them were just some Ursai, solo, not really, but there were quite a few, so the challenge was present… and still too little. The first years trying to fend them off are seemingly having some troubles with them, so I launch myself in the air with two shots, then problem is solved with salvos from my gauntlets. I then approach two of the townspeople, who were being attacked by those Ursai as well, to get some more information about what is happening.

"Hey, you two, citizens, it's not very safe here for you, let me escort you where you can give me some information. Is this ok for you? I ask them gently.

The couple nodded, which makes sense, they want to get to safety as fast as they can. I start to walk, and the two persons were eagerly following me, always making sure they were on my tail, looking around nervously for any threats that could have appeared.

It's somewhat of shame I'm not seeing any Grimm. Damnit, I really need something to fight here, I need it to put my mind off things, my emotions are pretty much all over the place these days. I normally don't really show my emotions all that much but that has changed recently. I'm not at all used to it and it's very, very frustrating. My emotions don't really matter as much as the lives of these two citizens though, so it turned out for the best.

Due to me constantly thinking to myself, I'm not even noticing we've arrived at the marketplace where we got dropped off. I see that they were able to clear the area of Grimm and that some airships are currently landing. I motioned the two townspeople to come closer to me, so I could finally ask them the questions I desire to know.

Now that we're safe, can you tell me what's going on exactly?" I ask while they slowly approach me.

The husband, they are obviously married, tells me the story as soon as he's close enough: "We were just watching some television, at ease, when we both suddenly heard what seemed to be a massive explosion. Logically, we went outside to check what was happening, like many others did, and then it happened… we were stormed by a large amount of Grimm, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Of course we can defend against 1 or 2 of them [(but… it's just… there were just so many…) or (but there were too much for us to handle)]. Hundreds of us were slaughtered almost immediately. The only ones who survived , were ex-hunters, others who went to a fighting academy or those who had found a great hiding spot."

I now know what happened but of course, I still have some questions first: "So… it's like that breach we had earlier, about 4 years ago? Why didn't you escape as soon as you had the chance, it was not really safe where I found you?"

"Yes we remember that incident 4 years ago quite well, but I would say it's a whole lot worse now. Back then, almost nobody died, we had minimal casualties, it's pretty much the opposite this time around. We did try to escape from here, yes, but the only way to do that is by going through the south-east, but when we went there, we noticed that the south-east has been sealed by large pieces of debris, probably caused by that huge explosion we heard earlier. There's even a huge hole in the ground over there, and I reckon that's where the Grimm have been coming from."

I'm having a terrified feeling now that I know this, this is almost exactly like 4 years ago, only, it seems to have succeeded far better now. Goddamnit, it makes me think about all those helpless victims again. _Who could be behind it this time? _I decide to start talking to the two townspeople again. "I'm pretty sure that the airships are going to be able to land any second now, and I bet they're about to send even more airships to pick up all the survivors and bring them to safety. I suggest you join them". They obey my suggestion meekly, they don't know what else to do anyway.

now that I got that out of the way, I'm going to go to one of the coordinators who have just set up and are now making sure everything is going as planned. I have to make sure I can find Ruby and Weiss so I can tell them about what I have learned recently. After talking to one of those coordinator guys, I know their locations, it's not terribly far from here. That's good, the earlier I can get to them, the better. Maybe the have an idea about how we are going to handle this situation. I like how fast that guy could get their coordinates; I'm leaving as fast as possible now that I know them. I was running faster than I ever have, that's how flighty I am.

When I arrive at the coordinates that were given to me, I'm seeing absolutely nothing or nobody, very strange. Suddenly, I hear screaming coming from above me, so I step aside to be able to take a better look at what's causing the screaming exactly. I can just about see a touch of red and white racing past me, after which I hear a reasonably loud thud; Ruby and Weiss are also suddenly lying next to me.

"Oh my god, are you guys alright? Are you hurt?" I ask worried.

Luckily, they are still able to respond, Ruby started talking. "I don't think we're hurt, our Aura took a big part of the blow. We…"

For the sake of us all, I unfortunately have to interrupt her. "Shh, I think we should move somewhere safer, prior to exchanging information here."

Obviously, Ruby and Weiss agree to that, so, several minutes later, we find ourselves in a nearby alleyway. It looks peaceful enough, as far as it can be at the moment, anyway. Of course we first check the environment to see if it's actually as safe as we think it is. We take a look around the corners at both sides, we're even looking in the container, even though we know a Grimm can't exactly fit in there. Only when we know it''s absolutely safe, we allow ourselves to relax a bit. Before I can start telling my story to Ruby and Weiss, they want to tell their own story.

"So… this is what happened: We were being chased down by Grimm, quite a lot of them, we were being driven in a corner on the roof of that building and we were unable to go anywhere, so, your dolt of a little sister thought it would be a good idea and to break our fall with my glyphs and shots of Crescent Rose. The only problem is that, obviously, that didn't work out too well." I don't know why but I think it's hilarious when Weiss is this irritated by something.

"But…how come they didn't come after you?" I wondered.

Apparently, Ruby thinks it's a good idea to take over from Weiss, probably because she's starting to feel embarrassed by her. "No, they weren't really able to come down very quickly. When we reached the top, the stair collapsed due to the weight of the many Grimm, which caused some of the Grimm dying and the survivors stuck up there for a while, but I don't think they'll be stuck up there forever."

Meanwhile, Weiss is sitting at the sideline, she didn't really like it very much so she's getting increasingly more impatient. It's clear that she's about to intervene so I'm not surprised when she eventually did. "Ok, so… Yang, now you our story, I think it's time to tell us 's so important you came to us for?" she eventually asks, with very good reason.

My worries about my two teammates almost made me forget why I am here in the first place, to tell them about what I have learned from those citizens. Of course, that's what I'm going to do then, Ruby and Weiss seem to be all ears as well, so I start telling the story, making sure I leave not a single detail behind. Ruby's and Weiss' facial expressions as the story goes along, from sadness to surprise and rage. When I get to the end of my storytelling, I can slowly see the sun rising from the east, which is making me realise that time had progressed a lot faster than I anticipated.

Ruby's leader instincts, which had developed astonishingly well during her 4 years at Beacon, immediately come back up. Like an experienced leader, she starts thinking about a plan, and, of course, she wants to involve us into the thinking as well. "We have to come up with a plan, but what? And how?" she suddenly wants to know of us.

"Ruby… there's not much point in making a plan right now. We can't exactly do a lot with the three of us against a Grimm army with this kind of size and scope. I think we should return to the bullheads, senior-hunters and coordinators, we'll be able to come up with a better plan over there, one that involves everyone that's available."

"You're probably right, it would be incredibly stupid to execute any plans ourselves. We would probably get terribly hurt, if not worse, and…"

_I don't love interrupting Ruby at all, but in this case, I really needed to. _"I would like to say that it would probably be fine with me around, we would probably not get severely wounded, but I'm going to agree with Weiss here, it would be more beneficial to construct a plan with the other people."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what makes you think that you can make it so we wouldn't be hurt?" It's obvious that Weiss is about to start an argument, and I for one, am not really willing to do this, since we are in the middle of a bloody massacre, but Weiss has to know at some point.

"Oh you want to know why I think that way? Well, for starters…"

"Please, you two, stop it! Quarreling isn't going to help us, quite the opposite in fact, we're making a lot more noise, which makes us more noticeable and it might cause us to get in trouble if we're not careful."

Ruby's harsh reality, her intervention, hits me pretty hard. _What am I doing if I even start a fight with one of my teammates while we're possibly in danger? _"... you're right Ruby, we should head back to the temporary crisis centre." I suggest.

The way back is really unsettling, the atmosphere around our little group of three got really chilly after that little incident, I suspect it to improve after a certain amount of time, but it's hard to judge how long that will take exactly.

A few minutes later, surprisingly, without too many Grimm attacks, we finally arrive at our desired destination. The atmosphere over here seems to be even chillier than the one we just experienced, which startled all three of us. We can definitely see people, but they only seemed to be focussed on one single thing. When I look at what they are focussing on exactly, I understand why things where this quiet over here. A large army of Grimm, bigger than any I have ever seen, was standing about 100 yards from the temporary camp, about to attack it.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. I also hope that the change between Durandal's writing style and mine won't cause a lot of whiplash. Next chapter should be up next week, written by Durandal again.**

(Durandal): OK, I may have forgotten to upload this yesterday.


End file.
